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arXiv:1505.01302 · EPJ Quantum Technology

Thermal noise in BEC-phononic gravitational wave detectors

Carlos Sabín, Jan Kohlrus, David Edward Bruschi, Ivette Fuentes

Published May 20, 2016• 22 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quasiparticles in a Bose-Einstein condensate are sensitive to space-time distortions. Gravitational waves can induce transformations on the state of phonons that can be observed through quantum state discrimination techniques. We show that this method is highly robust to thermal noise and depletion. We derive a bound on the strain sensitivity that shows that the detection of waves in the kHz regime is not significantly affected by temperature in a wide range of parameters that are well within current experimental reach.

DOI
10.1140/epjqt/s40507-016-0046-4

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Quasiparticles in a Bose-Einstein condensate are sensitive to space-time distortions. Gravitational waves can induce transformations on the state of phonons that can be observed through quantum state discrimination techniques. We show that this method is highly robust to thermal noise and depletion. We derive a bound on the strain sensitivity that shows that the detection of waves in the kHz regime is not significantly affected by temperature in a wide range of parameters that are well within current experimental reach.
We investigate a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) as a gravitational wave detector, and study its sensitivity by optimizing the properties of the condensate and the measurement duration. We show that detecting kilohertz gravitational waves is limited by current experimental techniques in squeezing BEC phonons. Without focussing on a specific detector setup, our study shows that substantive future improvements in technology (e.g., increasing the squeezing of BEC states or their physical size) will be necessary for such a detector to be competitive in measuring gravitational waves of astrophysical and/or cosmological origin.
Squeezed, nonclassical states are an integral tool of quantum metrology due to their ability to push the sensitivity of a measurement apparatus beyond the limits of classical states. While their creation in light has become a standard technique, the production of squeezed states of the collective excitations in gases of ultracold atoms, the phonons of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), is a comparably recent problem. This task is continuously gaining relevance with a growing number of proposals for BEC-based quantum metrological devices and the possibility to apply them in the detection of gravitational waves. The objective of this thesis is to find whether the recently described effect of an oscillating external potential on a uniform BEC can be exploited to generate two-mode squeezed phonon states, given present day technology. This question brings together elements of a range of fields beyond cold atoms, such as general relativity and Efimov physics. To answer it, the full transformation caused by the oscillating potential on an initially thermal phononic state is considered, allowing to find an upper bound for the magnitude of this perturbation as well as to quantify the quality of the final state with respect to its use in metrology. These findings are then applied to existing experiments to judge the feasibility of the squeezing scheme and while the results indicate that they are not well suited for it, a setup is proposed that allows for its efficient implementation and seems within experimental reach. In view of the vast parameter space leaving room for optimization, the considered mechanism could find applications not only in the gravitational wave detector that originally motivated this work, but more generally in the field of quantum metrology based on ultracold atoms.
Abstract An interesting proposal for detecting gravitational waves involves quantum metrology of Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs). We consider a forced modulation of the speed of sound of a BEC, whose modulation frequency matches that of an incoming continuous gravitational wave. The speed of sound modulation induces parametric resonance in the BEC, which in turn enhances sensitivity of the BEC to gravitational waves. We find that such a BEC detector could potentially be used to detect gravitational waves across several orders of magnitude in frequency, with the sensitivity depending on the speed of sound, size of the condensate, and frequency of the phonons. We discuss the sensitivity of a possible BEC experiment and comment on the current technological limitations. We also comment on the noise sources as well as what is necessary for such a detector to become feasible.
We show how to vary the physical properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in order to mimic an effective gravitational-wave spacetime. In particular, we focus in the simulation of the recently discovered creation of particles by a real spacetime distortion in box-type traps. We show that, by modulating the speed of sound in the BEC, the phonons experience the effects of a simulated spacetime ripple with experimentally amenable parameters. These results will inform the experimental programme of gravitational wave astronomy with cold atoms.
A gravitational-wave (GW) detector that utilizes the phononic excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) has recently been proposed [NJP 16, 085003 (2014)]. A subsequent and independent study, [arXiv:1807.07046v1], has suggested an alternative GW detection scheme that also uses phonons of a BEC but which was found to be many orders of magnitude away from being feasible. Here we make clear that the two proposed schemes are very different and that the conclusions of [arXiv:1807.07046v1] do not apply to the original proposal [NJP 16, 085003 (2014)].
The effect of noise induced by gravitons on a Bose-Einstein condensate has been explored in Sen and Gangopadhyay [Probing the quantum nature of gravity using a Bose-Einstein condensate, ]. In the previous paper, we investigated the effects of graviton while detecting a gravitational wave using a Bose-Einstein condensate. In this work, we shall explicitly calculate the decoherence due to the noise of gravitons for maximally entangled momentum states of the Bose-Einstein condensate. This decoherence happens due to bremsstrahlung from the Bose-Einstein condensates due to the effect of the noise induced by gravitons. It is observed that the maximally entangled state becomes entangled with the graviton state and it decays over time as a result of this gravitational bremsstrahlung. This new entangled state is termed as a Bose-Einstein supercondensate. Using this property of the Bose-Einstein condensate in a quantum gravity background, we propose an experimental test via the use of atom lasers (generated from the condensate) which would, in principle, help to detect gravitons in future generations of very advanced ultracold temperature experiments.